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<blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 5958601" data-attributes="member: 386">I disagree.&nbsp; I think that balance means that the players have choices to make.&nbsp; An unbalanced game means that there are only a few choices to make; a broken game means that there's only one.&nbsp; (Compare Chess (balanced) to Connect 4 (broken or solved, same thing).)If we're looking at how the game works I think we need to consider reward systems.&nbsp; The reward for playing D&amp;D is to experience the imagined world.&nbsp; The way that the system pushes you into this - through playing the game, makes the imagined world situation more interesting and adds depth - is its reward system.I would say that the game should be balanced on this level: the players should have many choices to make about how to experience the imagined world.&nbsp; If one choice is going to make exploration more interesting and add more depth, then it's unbalanced.&nbsp; All choices should add interest and depth, but they need to do so in different ways.This makes me think that the &quot;martial&quot; classes (fighter, thief, ranger) should drill-down into the grit of the world, and the &quot;magic&quot; classes (wizard) should expand outwards into the planes.&nbsp; Clerics and druids (and monks?) would occupy a space in-between, as religion and nature are important to the grit of every-day life but expand outwards into the metaphysical planes.If you have a party of all types, then you'd experience a game where the PCs eventually travel to different planes and get into the grit of every-day life wherever they go.Adventure would then be the point of the game; adventure in order to increase the interest and depth of the game.edit: When I say &quot;experience the imagined world&quot;, I mean that in many ways: feeling as though you are there, setting goals in that imagined world and using your experience in that world to achieve them, getting into tactical combat with monsters who act differently based on their role/place in that imagined world, engaging with moral and ethical issues in that imagined world, etc.&nbsp; Pretty much &quot;Exploration&quot; from the Big Model - the creation of fiction.Since this is D&amp;D you'd need to guide that fiction towards high-fantasy or swords &amp; sorcery (both are D&amp;D), and how you create the characters and how those characters interact with the reward system would be that guide.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="LostSoul, post: 5958601, member: 386"] I disagree. I think that balance means that the players have choices to make. An unbalanced game means that there are only a few choices to make; a broken game means that there's only one. (Compare Chess (balanced) to Connect 4 (broken or solved, same thing).) If we're looking at how the game works I think we need to consider reward systems. The reward for playing D&D is to experience the imagined world. The way that the system pushes you into this - through playing the game, makes the imagined world situation more interesting and adds depth - is its reward system. I would say that the game should be balanced on this level: the players should have many choices to make about [i]how[/i] to experience the imagined world. If one choice is going to make exploration more interesting and add more depth, then it's unbalanced. All choices should add interest and depth, but they need to do so in different ways. This makes me think that the "martial" classes (fighter, thief, ranger) should drill-down into the grit of the world, and the "magic" classes (wizard) should expand outwards into the planes. Clerics and druids (and monks?) would occupy a space in-between, as religion and nature are important to the grit of every-day life but expand outwards into the metaphysical planes. If you have a party of all types, then you'd experience a game where the PCs eventually travel to different planes and get into the grit of every-day life wherever they go. Adventure would then be the point of the game; adventure in order to increase the interest and depth of the game. edit: When I say "experience the imagined world", I mean that in many ways: feeling as though you are there, setting goals in that imagined world and using your experience in that world to achieve them, getting into tactical combat with monsters who act differently based on their role/place in that imagined world, engaging with moral and ethical issues in that imagined world, etc. Pretty much "Exploration" from the Big Model - the creation of fiction. Since this is D&D you'd need to guide that fiction towards high-fantasy or swords & sorcery (both are D&D), and how you create the characters and how those characters interact with the reward system would be that guide. [/QUOTE]

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